I went over to Baton Rouge today to visit my youngest daughter and her husband and son. Ok, so I actually went to spoil my grandson, who at two years old continues to amaze me with what he knows. He knows his colors, can count to ten, knows his ABCs and learned Twinkle Twinkle Little Star from the cd I gave him for Christmas. He is one smart little youngun. Here he is getting ready to give Johnny Depp a run for his money.
The other reason I went is because they got their new puppy, Annie. Look at that face! How can anyone want any other kind of dog???? Boston Terriers are the best dogs, hands down.
So, I played cars and trains with Reese and tried to keep Annie from gnawing my toes off. And, hated to leave when I did, but a friend drove me over because my van is kinda sorta falling apart just now.
On the way home I started telling Leslie, my friend, ( some people think that my friendship with her is sending me straigt to hell, but that's for another day) Anyway, I started talking about my older brother and how odd and talented he is. He once paid my youngest brother a dime to let him, the older brother, push the younger brother's face down into the mud so he could make a plaster cast to use for a dummy's head. He still has that dummy. He also has two others, both he bought. He also is an amateur magician and has designed and built several 'tricks'. Over the past few years he has been moving his dummies and tricks to a room at his bakery (he makes absolutely the best doughnuts. No one is as good.) So, even though his house got flooded during Katrina, he did not lose any of the special things he values. Anything else he lost can be replaced.
James writes and draws and just thinks of the weirdest things. A conversation with him is, you ask a question or mention something and off he goes, while you sit back and just enjoy.
He has always loved old cars and has had a 1928 Model T and a 1932 Roadster with a rumble seat. I may be wrong on the years, but I do remember that one was a truck and he had to use a hand crank to get it going. (This is one incident where he wished that he had a regular car.) This happened in a spooky house we lived in once, where weird things were always happening. Or, my brothers tried to scare me into believing they really happened. The only thing that happened there that I believe, but didn't see, happened to my oldest brother. James worked at a bakery and had to be at work at 3:30 am. When this incident happened he was there alone. The rest of the family had gone to visit my stepfather's family. James said that he got up one morning and while he was getting ready he heard a car or truck drive up and stop in front of our house. He heard men laughing and talking and sounds of equipment and doors banging. He didn't think anything of it because we had been told that the city was soon going to clear the trees and make the road go all the way to the next subdivision. He finished getting ready and went out to get in his car......he had a 1932 Ford Roadster that he had to crank....and there was nothing, not a car, truck or anyone, out there. He swore that he had heard this. He also said that he had never cranked that thing so fast before.
I love my brother. He has had a hard life. He starting working when he was 8, on a paper route. He had a good route too. Most people in our small town knew our family and that our father was an alcoholic. James' route covered the black section of town. Every so often, the newspaper would hold a drive to get more subscriptions and the paperboy got the most would get a prize. Good prizes too. So, the people on his route would all get together, sign on for taking the paper and then after the contest was over they cancelled their subscriptions, till the next contest. He got a bike, one the he road while I was standing up on his shoulders. (I trusted him and would do anything he asked.) He also got a TV. This TV happened to arrive on my 5th birthday, so nothing could convince me that it wasn't my birthday gift. (Of course, this was before my mother got so involved with the JWs.)
James used me in a lot of his magic tricks and I thought I was the coolest thing going. He also taught me to read before I started school. He brought home at least one Little Golden Book each time he got paid.
James didn't finish school. He barely finished the seventh grade. He had to work to support us, since our father wasn't going to and our mother could only get work heading shrimp. But, James is the most intelligent, scholarly man you would ever want to meet. And, he did it on his own, after work or in between jobs. He proves what makes a man great. And, it isn't the name of the school you go to or the name of the family you are born into.
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